The Consequence of Inaction
by PeoplesVictory
Summary: when Lilian Luthor threatens to reveal Supergirl's secret identity to Lena Kara decides to beat her to it. Barry calls for help at the same time and Kara is forced to leave things unresolved leading to a series of events that will shape their futures.
1. Kara

Author's Note: this is my first Supergirl fic so bare with me. There isn't really a set ship involved but you can take from it what you will ;) This story should be about two to three chapters long but I don't think it'll go over that. It's only rated M just to be safe but I don't think it is really necessary.

okay, I hope you guys enjoy it. Thoughts, reviews and constructive criticism are all more than welcome :)

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The cool wind rushes through my hair, tickling my lips and nose as I circle L-Corp for the fifth time, my mind a jumbled mess of thoughts. My life has been upside down ever since the invasion, taking so much and leaving me right back where I started, lost and alone. Mon-El may not have been the best choice but he kept my mind off of the other changes in my life and he knew what it was like to lose his family, his world. Best of all, he was fluent in my language as I was in his, both having been mandatory in our studies. Sometimes, when we would lay alone at night we would recount stories of our planets in the other's mother tongue just so we could hear them spoken again.

When he was sent away it felt like watching the last shred of krypton being sent off with him. Yes, I have Kal but he has to be in Metropolis with Lois and yes, I have Alex who I has learned to speak Kryptonian over the years but it doesn't sound quite the same and she has Maggie and the DEO. James has Cato and he and Winn have the guardian. I may have my reporting and Supergirl but Snapper isn't making my life any easier and seem to only be screwing up both since I can hardly think. Sometimes it feels as though I'm sinking under water and I can't find my way back up.

It seems like Lena is really the only one trying the hardest to be there, more likely out of her guilt than anything else, though I have reassured her numerous times that I do not blame her. I know she's trying but she has a company to run and it feels like I'm only getting in her way. The last thing I want is for her to put all of her hard work on hold because of something that was my choice to make. But she doesn't know that, does she? She doesn't know I'm the one that made that choice because she doesn't know who I am. Maybe that needs to change.

Barry contacted me late last night, asking for my help on his earth. I haven't told him anything about the invasion yet but I think it might be a good idea for me to leave for a while. Since he is unsure how long I will have to be gone J'onn will have to take over my duties. Playing the superhero is easy for him, even playing the reporter doesn't seem as hard for him as it is for me, but playing Lena's best friend would be impossible.

James suggested I just tell her I need time to gather my thoughts after sending Mon-El away but that would mean throwing that burden on her and I cannot do that. Alex said it was up to me what I decide and J'onn urged caution. At first I had decided that maybe James was right, it would be faster that way and easier than explaining everything. Then, when I got home from the DEO there was an envelope at my door with pictures of me changing into my Supergirl uniform and a note from Lilian Luthor saying she was going to get me out of Lena's life one way or another. That settled it.

I land on Lena's balcony as gently as possible, hoping to buy myself a few extra seconds to gather my thoughts but Lena is already turning around in her seat, a smile stretching a cross her lips. I wonder if she will still look at me with such admiration once she knows the truth.

"Miss Luthor," I greet as she opens the sliding door, gesturing for me to enter with one hand.

"Supergirl, what brings you by so early in the morning?" I have to check the clock

on her opened laptop from where I stand, silently cursing myself for being in such a hurry to get here.

9:00AM

A little eager, no, Danvers? I groan inwardly before pulling a tight smile, fists on my hips as I shrug.

"Sorry, I didn't realize just how early it was." she chuckles almost nervously as she slips back behind her desk. She never laughs like that with Kara Danvers, always so open and easy going. But with Supergirl she is always so different, fidgeting and nervous. She sees Supergirl the same way everyone else does; as a savior, a god among mankind, someone to be repaid for their protection.

My smile must falter when I get wrapped up in my thoughts because hers does the same, pausing halfway to her seat.

"What's wrong? What do you need my help with?" She stands straight, brow creased in concern. I turn from her, wringing my hands as I try to gather my jumbled thoughts. Maybe I don't have to tell her. Maybe I can tell her Kara is being sent away for work.

"Miss, Luthor?" Jess's voice appears over the line followed by a long pause.

"What is it, Jess?" Lena finally asks though I can still feel her watching me.

"Your mother's here. Should I let her in?" Using my x-Ray vision I can see Lilian standing right outside the door, impatiently checking her watch. I have to tell her. She may hate me but at least this way the truth will come from me and not that twisted woman.

I slip on my glasses, taking the hair-tie from around my wrist to pull my hair back before turning around, wringing my hands in front of me as I bite my bottom lip anxiously. Her green eyes widen, mouth agape as she stares at me.

"N-no, Jess. I'm busy right now. Tell her I'll get back with her later." I can hear Lilian growling something to the poor receptionist outside the office.

We both stay frozen in place, staring at each other without offering a response for what feels like an eternity until I simply can't hold back.

"I am so sorry, Lena. I've wanted to tell you for so long I just-" she holds up a hand to stop me, closing her eyes as she takes a deep breath.

"Kara..." She says it softly like she's testing it out. When her eyes open they're hazy with tears and I hate myself more than I ever have. "I should have seen it." If I didn't have super-hearing I may have missed her words.

"That makes sense." When she chokes out a humorless laugh my own tears fall. "Is that why you were always around?" I begin shaking my head, striding closer until the desk stops me. "You were watching me because of my name?"

"No! Of course that's not why." I begin moving around the desk with outstretched hands, stopping when I see her quickly step back. "Lena...I'm your friend. I've always been your friend."

"Are you? Then why didn't you ever tell me?" Her voice is rising now, anger clear in the twitch of her mouth though I can still the pain in her eyes. "Why did you lie to me for long?"

"I didn't want to! I just-I just didn't know how to tell you! I didn't know how you would take it!" She shakes her head in disbelief, pointing to the open window.

"Get out." I don't move. "Get out, Kara!" She finally yells, exasperated.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She turns away from me, arms wrapping around herself.

"I know..." She doesn't sound angry anymore just...hurt and broken. "But I can't deal with this today."

"I'm going away for a while on a...mission. I don't know when I'll be back and...you won't be able to contact me." I shift from foot to foot as I wait for a response of some kind.

"Maybe it'll be better that way." My heart sinks, hands itching to reach out to her. "It'll give me time to...wrap my head around this. I'm sorry if...I ever gave you a reason not to trust me." Her voice trails off and I can see her shoulders shake in a quite sob.

"I've always trusted you..." I breathe, physically forcing myself in place. "I am your friend." I begin stepping to the window when I hear Jess telling someone not to come in. I know it's Lilian, I had never heard her leave and I know I have to find some way to prove my honesty or risk losing my best friend before I even come home.

"I-" The words stay stuck in my throat. I try to spit them out but they won't come. I love her, I know I do. I've never really said it because it has always seemed so unnecessary, still, now I know she needs to hear it. She needs to know someone loves her, someone who would literally move mountains to save her. Someone who, unlike her so-called mother, would never use Lena's affection against her.

I love you, Lena Luthor. I think the words but never say them, silently wishing my sincerity would bleed through my lips. Then I'm gone before she turns around, before she responds, before Lilian comes bursting through the door with Jess on her heels. Then it's too late; too late to act, too late to speak, too late to say what I need in order to keep my friend. My darling Lena.


	2. Lena

Author's note: Apparently this is going to be from Kara and Lena's POVs. You can figure it out by just reading or by looking at the title of the chapters for their names.

If something looks screwed up let me know. I went over it a couple times but I may have missed something.

hope you guys enjoy!

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I am crying when my mother busts through the door, making me jump back in surprise. I try rubbing away my tears with the back of my hand, watching as she searc

hes the room. It isn't until she's done a full sweep of the space that she seems to even notice me. We both stay silent for a moment before she is suddenly striding closer, hands coming to cup my face.

"Oh, my poor girl," she nearly coos and I stupidly burst into tears. I haven't seen her since the invasion, since she came to rescue me, to ask for another chance. Now here she is, wrapping her arms around me, cradling my head to her shoulder as though she has done this thousands of times before and I am stupidly falling for it. A part of me knows that it won't last, that she has to be here for something but right now I don't care. I must look so weak to her, I feel weak but she doesn't comment on it which I find rather odd since "Luthor's don't cry", "Luthor's don't show weakness".

After allowing me to weep for a minute or so she leads me to couch on the other side of the room, keeping her hands on mine as we sit, close enough for our knees to brush. She sweeps my hair back from my face with one hand and I have to force myself not to shrink back as she examines me.

"Everyone disappoints you, don't they? Even _she_ proved to be like everyone else." I shake her hands off. That's why she's here.

"You know? You know who she is?" I stand up, shaking my head as I make my way to the mini bar set near the shelf.

"I wanted to tell you but she was pretending to be your friend and-" I toss one of the tumblers against the wall effectively shattering it and making her stop.

" _Don't_. Kara may have lied to me about Supergirl, she may not have trusted me with that secret but don't try to convince me that _she's_ the enemy." She raises a placating hand, clearly having gotten the warning. I may be pissed off and hurt by Kara but she's seen me through more in a year than this woman has in a lifetime.

"Alright, Lena. Alright. She's your friend, I understand that." She stands up slowly, moving closer to the door. "She still lied, she's still one of them." She pauses at the threshold, one hand on the door. "And you're still a Luthor. When it comes down to it, you'll still be her last choice."

Once she is out of the room I wait before breaking down again, falling to my knees as I begin sobbing uncontrollably.

"I forgive you," I whisper over and over again, hating myself for not having said it when she was here. She may have lied but she took away the loneliness I have felt my entire life and I don't think I can live without that.

A week passes and Kara has yet to show up, though someone has taken her place, no doubt a shapeshifting alien that works with her. They tried to pretend to be her when I called to apologize that night she left my office. She must have left shortly after visiting my office. I didn't bother telling them I knew.

I stand on a stage in front of a throng of people giving a speech on the good of the city, on my love for the people, my pride in opening a new orphanage. It's a speech I've rehearsed close to a hundred times, a speech Kara had helped me with. Over a week ago she had promised to be here since she was the only one who truly understood my motives and, although I know it won't happen, I find myself searching the crowed for the familiar reporter.

Before our argument Supergirl had agreed to appear with me, even offering to give her own speech but now that I know the truth I couldn't bare to allow a fraud to take Kara's place. The people may not know the difference but I do.

I have just finished my speech, a roar of clapping breaking out from the audience when I hear gunfire. One of my guards rushes forward but is shot before he can reach me making me pause. Of all the times Lilian could do something it had to be now. Now when I finally have an _ounce_ of their trust!

As I make my way down the steps of the stage I see Alex Danvers rushing toward me, screaming something into her com when two hands grab me from behind.

"Let go of me!" I demand, kicking and squirming in their grasp. The crowed is scattering, making it difficult to focus on one thing but I see the agent as she pushes past people, then I see someone behind her with a gun.

"No!" I scream, kicking my captor in the shin just hard enough for him to loosen his grasp so I can flee. "Alex!" She stops in her tracks in confusion. "Turn around!" It feels like someone slams into me, I hear the gun go off and then everything fades out.

My first thoughts when I wake are for Kara, thinking that I hear her calling my name until I open my eyes to see Lex standing over me. I bolt up, scooting myself as far away from him as I can get.

"Easy, Lee. You're safe." He smiles softly, gesturing to the room we're in. "See? No chains, no bars." This place is familiar with its open windows, curtains blowing in the breeze with the background noise of rolling waves and gulls. I roll my eyes, sinking back into the large bed.

"Why did you bring me here?" I feel him stand from the edge of the bed but don't bother looking at him. Was bringing us to our old vacation house supposed to stir some sort of affection?

"Dad used to love this place. You remember the last time we were here?" I scoff.

"Yea, a year before he died and your mother blew what little life I had to hell." He's silent and I wonder if I've upset him.

"We're not the enemies, Lena." I must because I can hear him clenching his jaw. "You know mother, she can be...difficult. She expects the best from us because she knows we can _give_ the best." I prop myself up against the headboard with a sigh.

"What do you want with me? I'm not opening anything else for you people and I doubt I have any information."

" _You people_?" He repeats with indignation, slowly walking back to the bed. "I'm your brother and whether you like it or not she's the only mother you have. We're not just _people_ , we're your family." The way he looks at me makes me feel uneasy, as though if I push too hard he may snap.

"Okay, Lex." I nod in agreement. "I know, I just...it's been hard, ya know? Trying to keep the company up without you, trying to find my own way in National city."

"Yes, making terrible choices in friends." He adds, sitting back down next to me. "I'm sorry we couldn't be there to guide you. I was a little...tied up, as you know and mother was rather busy." When you both should have been in prison, I add silently.

"I opened the orphanage." I try to smile as best as I can. His face seems to soften at that as he reaches out a hand to take one of mine.

"I'm sorry we intruded when we did. Mother said it was the best timing but I wish we could have done it later." The way his brow knits together and he gives my hand the slightest squeeze makes me believe him. After all, he knew I had planned something like this from the time I came to work with him at Lex Corp.

"Lex...I know you must have done this for a reason but..." I start carefully, trying my best to play off of his protective side for me. I know he won't grant me much but if I could only have one thing... "Whatever the plan is...could you make sure-" he raises one hand and for a moment my chest tightens with the dreaded idea that my request has been denied before it has ever left my lips.

"I've already taken care of everything," he says with a smile, moving the hand that had silenced me to tuck my hair back. "None of the hospitals you have opened or assisted will be touched, neither will the orphanage. You have my word." I release a shaky sigh of relief, tears burning my eyes.

"Thank you." He readjusts himself to be right beside me, tucking me under his arm as I begin to cry. Cry in relief, cry for the brother I've lost, cry because I don't know if I'll be able to get out of this without compromising something else.

"That's what family's for; we do our best to keep each other happy." I shiver at that, dreading the idea of what may make them happy.

Five days later and things are more peaceful than they have ever been. Lilian stopped by on my second day here, offering an offhanded apology about the disruption of the ceremony. She stayed for a dinner that Lex cooked and then took her leave. Ever since then it has only been the two of us, reading and talking, playing on the beach like nothing has changed, like he has been in my life this whole time.

Sometimes I get this dreadful feeling that this is what they want, for me to believe that I have a family with them, with him at the least.

It was on my second night that I remembered Alex. Something in the way Lilian spoke of family and protecting each other made me remember something Kara had once said. Once Lilian was gone and it was just the two of us alone in the dim light of the living room, I decided to broach the subject.

"She's saved me before," I said while wringing my hands in my lap, refusing to look at him.

"I wasn't there. I couldn't tell you even if I wanted to." I could see him shrug from the corner of my eye before getting up to leave. Fearing the idea of upsetting him too much, I never brought it up again.

I hear him calling from the kitchen and make my way down the hall from my room. I stop in the livingroom when I see the tv on. For almost a week I haven't been allowed to have any contact with the outside world, even the tv being off limits. Not that he had said anything outright. It had been more of an unspoken rule with my phone gone and the remote nowhere in sight, his time spent keeping my mind busy with games and words of all kinds whether written or spoken.

I see my picture come up and move closer, grabbing the remote from the coffee table to turn up the volume.

'Lex Luthor seems to have broken out of prison at the same time his sister disappeared. Officials say both are being looked for at this time,' the woman reports, my stomach churning when they bring up a live newsfeed from outside of L-Corp, police scattered about.

'It's being reported that Ms. Luthor is being seen as an accomplice now that they've identified the body in her office as her assistant.' a young man reports from the scene.

"No..." I nearly choke, frantically shaking my head as though it might wake me. Is this why he left it on? To show me what they've done?

'Is it true that a form of synthetic kryptonite was found in Ms. Luthor's office as well?' He asks a nearby police officer.

'Hey!" A voice shouts over them, the camera panning around to show a pissed off Alex Danvers. 'What did I say abo-' the camera shuts off before she finishes but it's enough to give me a small amount of relief. At least I didn't get Kara's sister killed along with Jess.

I hear Lex step into the room but I don't bother looking up. This is the second time they have framed me, the second time they've tried ruining my career, the reputation I've built for myself. The thought that I will never be free of them makes me want to scre

am.

"You can't go back now," he rests a hand over my shoulder, the weight feeling far heavier than it probably really is. "They'll see you as a criminal. Not even Supergirl will be able to give you absolution this time."

"Why are you doing this?" I look up to him with tears in my eyes, searching his face for something that says this isn't real.

"To save you." He leads me to the couch to sit with him. "The Els...they can be...alluring with their godlike power, the way they are always hovering above us, they're sickeningly sweet demeanor," his words slowly grow hard. "The way they always look for the _good_ in us Luthor's." Something in his voice makes me shiver. "You see? I understand why you think you love her so much, but trust me, the feeling is not mutual."

I want to protest, to tell him that it is, that Kara will know it's not true and come for me. She always has. But I don't even know if she's back yet.

"I know you think it is, that she's spun her little words to make you feel like she's on your side. She made you feel like the good guy, right? Like you're as righteous as she is" He smirks knowingly.

"I may not be righteous," the tears I've been holding back begin to trickle down my cheeks. "But I am _not_ like you. _Nothing_ you do will make me like either one of you." I push away from him, staggering to my feet. "She _found_ the good in me. She showed me that I could be _better_ than you, that I _am_ better than you." I step back quickly when he rises to his feet, thinking for a moment that he might lash out.

"You'll see the truth sooner or later." He shuts the tv off before making his way to the kitchen. "Dinner's almost ready. Go get cleaned up and join me on the back porch." The contrast in his demeanor could make my head spin if I weren't used to it by now.

 _Oh Kara, where are you?_

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I just realized the Authro's note I meant to leave on the first chapter got left out. I went back and fixed it though :)


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